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Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), the most widely grown type of wheat globally, was first grown in Georgia and the South Caucasus region, according to a new study.
Previous DNA studies of the modern wheat plant genome and its widely accepted ancestor, wild goatgrass (known as Aegilops tauschii), had concluded that the South Caucasus and the Caspian Sea region were the likely places where the first crossbreeding of domesticated wheat and wild goatgrass took place. This produced the hybrid that eventually became bread wheat.
However, there was no physical evidence to validate this.
The researchers sifted through soil and charred debris excavated from Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora, two Stone Age villages in Georgia.
Searching for burnt wheat seeds and distinguishing them from other varieties like durum wheat, which is very similar, is difficult according to an article on the portal Phys.org.
So, the researchers looked for the rachis (the main stem running up the centre of the head, from which the individual wheat spikelets, the small clusters that contain the grains, are attached). These were identified by their curved sides and thin edges. Later, radiocarbon dating revealed them to be dating back to 5,800-6,000 BCE.
According to the paper, the Neolithic population in the region practiced shifting agriculture where they came back to the exhausted land once it recovered.
Besides giving the world bread wheat, these people might also be the early discoverers of the first wines as the chemical residue analysis of pottery found at these same villages suggests early wine production dating back to 8,000 years.
Bread wheat accounts for around 95 per cent of wheat production and consumption, being used to make items ranging from staple food (like tortillas) to cakes and others.
The paper, titled An independent center for the origin of bread wheat in the Neolithic period of Georgia in the South Caucasus, has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
